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In early 2008, the U.S. National Academy of Engineering convened a panel of 18 worldrenowned scientists, engineers, and thinkers. Together and with the help of dozens of other
field experts who reviewed their work, they identified 14 of the most prevalent issues in the
scientific fields of study. Today these issues, or Grand Challenges for Engineering, are the
subject of intense study and research, as we attempt to hurdle these obstacles and create a
brighter future.
This report focuses on challenge number seven: Restore and Improve Urban Infrastructure.
It is intended to reach all new engineers in the Civil or Environmental disciplines, or anyone
wishing to learn more about this challenge or help work towards solving it.
Secure Cyberspace
What is infrastructure?
Even more recent developments like internet and cell phone are also accounted for. All of
these different pieces work together to create an environment that is most suitable for our
success as a society.
Figure taken from www.infrastructurereportcard.com. It depicts all 16 categories that contribute to the
overall evaluation of infrastructure in America. One lone B- for solid waste disposal is the highlight, while the
rest are alarmingly low.
Many of these grades are not just relevant to convenience of life, some propose
genuine safety hazards. For example a grade of D in Dams is extremely concerning. Dams
provide numerous services, and also hold huge amounts of water that could drastically affect
the area if something were to go wrong. If a dam were to fail, there would undoubtedly be
loss of life in addition to any economic issues that accompany a disaster like that. In fact,
there are over 10,000 dams in the US that are classified as high hazard and another 12,000
are significant hazard. (ASCE 2013) This is just one of the many examples of extremely
pressing issues that need to be addressed as we attempt to help ourselves.
building and maintaining our cities. Automation can help with the building process, and
developing better materials will also create more opportunities.
Working with the Past: Much of the existing infrastructure is buried, posing several
problems for maintaining and upgrading it. (NAE 2013) This includes pipe networks, power
lines, and other systems. Maintenance on underground systems is incredibly difficult, as it
often involves digging up roads, underneath houses and buildings, and closing areas in order
to do so. To make matters worse, many of the records from the past are incomplete or
missing entirely, making this task all the more difficult. New methods of locating
underground systems and working on them without disrupting day-to-day life are necessary.
up a lot more space than building with other materials. Material Engineers must work to
develop new alloys and material designs in order to aid in the process.
Another promising solution is to reinvent the building process itself. Most of the methods
commonly used today are hundreds, if not thousands, of years old. Manual construction like
laying brick, digging foundations, and building scaffolding to work on the structure is an
inefficient use of both time and money. Many aspects of the process could be greatly
improved with automation and robotics. This would lower costs, speed up the lengthy
process, and eliminate any risks to humans working in dangerous situations. Transporting
power and electricity from the source to the job site could also be improved by developing
better computer systems.
A great example of ingenuity
in structure design is in
Washington State, where
engineers recently built a
7,700 foot floating bridge
across Lake Washington. This
project was undertaken to
provide more convenient
access to the surrounding
areas, where conventional
bridges would not do the
job. The soft bed of the lake
would have made it
impossible to build a
conventional bridge, so
engineers decided a floating system could suit their needs better. The project was long, and
could definitely still have benefitted from an improved construction method, but the result is
excellent considering the circumstances.
expensive or in an inconvenient location for many people to take advantage. While roads and
highways will always be a part of our cities, but their efficiency needs to be streamlined. In
some cities, efforts are already underway by establishing hubs where trains, taxis, busses,
pedestrian paths, and parking areas that are all centrally located near one another. In Hong
Kong, several transportation services are linked in a system that allows a single smart card to
be used to pay for all the services, including gas and parking. (NAE 2013) Systems such as
this would certainly aid in streamlining the efficiency of the transportation systems in our
own county as well.
Water and electricity are the
other major components of
urban infrastructure that
need to be addressed. Right
now, many areas use systems
that attempt to supply every
part of the city from one one
central source. While this
does provide consolidation of
space and resources, many
cities have too large a
population for the system to
work efficiently for
everyone. Some engineers
propose that localizing water
and power stations to service
a specific suburb or
neighborhood rather than
the entire city would be
much more convenient and efficient, as transport costs would decrease, and problems at the
source would not affect so many people at once. The challenge here would be to engineer the
facilities in such a way that they are not encroaching on anyones space or adding an eyesore
to the community. This idea would be best implemented in emerging societies that dont
already have centralized systems, like many that are in developing areas like China or India,
allowing engineers to observe the results of this new method. (NAE 2013)
we can move ahead, we have to come up with new ways to produce energy while at the same
time reducing the harm that this does to the planet. We must create new methods of
development, maintenance, and organization in our cities, and address any problems as they
arise, rather than ignoring them and allowing them to get worse.
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